Back to the normal stuff today. It's a nice sunny Tuesday and I did a few errands this morning after I dropped Jo off at work. We've decided to order in a curry for our Valentine's dinner tomorrow night. It's been awhile. It's always tasty.
I'm finished with my look at our bookshelves and books and now I'm going to return to providing book reviews and synopses of books I'm reading or of new books. This will be my first of February.
New Books
"Extortion is the name of the game and the method is to murder anyone who might get in the way. The Dreem factory and much else is at stake. Inspector West has to unravel it all at gun point, but not without difficulty and surprise . ."
"For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.
Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.
The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy."
"Believing her warship days are over after she defeats the Barrayaran militarists and marries their leader, former commander Cordelia Naismith is astounded by the role her unborn son will play in a world on the brink of civil war."
"How can you stop a conspiracy of telepaths? The alien Lyhhrt are powerful enough to read the human mind; if they find you know too much, they can erase your memory, or simply stop your heart. The normally peaceful Lyhhrt society has been splintered by technological change, the bitter legacy of their exploitation by the Zamos crime family. Now a few renegade Lyhhrt, driven mad by isolation from their group mind, seem to be planning terrible crimes--or are they again being used as deadly tools in someone else's scheme?
When the illicit corporation created by Zamos collapsed, it disrupted the lives of heroes as well as villains. With gambling dens shut down, gladiator Ned Gaddes has nowhere to fight. Beautiful Lorrice had hoped to sell her ESP talents to Zamos, but was forced to sell her body instead. And on the planet Khagodis, scholarly Hasso will be forced to leave his archives and unravel the shadowy web that has entangled their fate with the Lyhhrt's.
The struggle that ensues provides the ultimate test of their resources - Ned's savvy toughness, Lorrice's psychic insight, and the fact that even a gentle Khagodi like Hasso could go head-to-head with a dinosaur. Like the best science fiction, Mindworlds is simultaneously exciting and thought provoking. Gotlieb offers a satisfyingly complex look at the ambiguous consequences of toppling even the most evil of empires, and the sacrifices that ordinary people must make to prevent the vacuum of power from being filled by equally corrupt forces."
Just Finished
(I've completed six books in February, 3 by Ursula K. Le Guin as part of my 12 + 4 challenge in which I'm trying to read 16 of her books this year.)
"Planet of Exile is the 2nd book in Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle Sci Fi series. Winter is coming to the planet of Askatevar, The planet circles a dying sun and the year lasts 60 earth years, so winter is 15 years. The Tevars are a race that have lived on the planet since the beginning and they are now in their winter home, building their Winter City where they will hunker down for the season until they can come out again in Spring.
Rolery, a young girl, one of the daughters of the Tevar leader, Wold, is avoiding work and exploring, heading to the city of the Farborn, an off planet race, part of the League of Planet, who arrived at Askatevar 600 years ago to see if the races of the planet had enough know how to become members of the League. But a war with a Dark Evil meant that all of their ships had to leave to defend the League, leaving behind a small group of Farborn... as they call themselves, 'Men'. The Farborn have lived in relative harmony with the Tevar people but now their leader Jacob Agat, has a warning. Another race, the Gaal has joined all of its tribes and is bent on destroying the Tevar and Farborn before Winter comes.
There is the gist of the story. As well, there is love story developing between Rolery and Jacob that will affect their possible alliance. Jacob is trying to persuade Wold to leave the Winter City and head back into the mountains to shift the Gaal away from their cities because he fears the destruction of both. His relationship with a Tevar is not permitted and means that it will affect his ability to persuade the Tevar to fight with his people.
Makes sense? I do have some difficulty sometime putting stories like this down succinctly.😒🤔
It's a very short story that moves along rapidly from the initial contact between Rolery and Jacob and the battle to save the Tevar and Farborn from the rampaging Gaal. It's kind of breath-taking but at the same time very thoughtful in its discussion of the relationship between Farborn and Tevar, how the Farborn are not able to force their technology on a planet's people until they demonstrate abilities themselves (Star Trek much?) and how the Farborn are forgetting their own past as they live in isolation on this planet. Interesting characters. Interesting interactions and lots of action. An excellent story and as the 2nd book in the Hainish Cycle, it provides more information on the League of planets and their efforts to explore other planets. A better written story than Rocannon's World as Le Guin seemed to find her stride as she explored this series in more depth. (4.0 stars)"
"Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by :Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published in 1976, is atypical of the usual books I read by LeGuin, those being fantasy and Sci Fi. This is purely Young Adult fiction, a simple, beautiful story told from the perspective of high schooler, 17-year old Owen Thomas Griffiths. Owen tells his story into a tape recorder and transcribes later.
It's not too difficult to describe, although I'm sure I'll just cover the barest surface level of the story. But here goes. Owen is a nerd and finds high school difficult. He has a few friends but it's mainly on the young man joking level. He likes the sciences, enjoys analyzing and wants to go to MIT or Cal Tech, maybe to study psychology.
His father buys him a new car for his 17th birthday and Owen resists driving it to school as he feels it's just makes him 'one of the crowd', something he doesn't really want. Coming back from school on a very rainy day, he takes the bus and sits beside Natalie Fields, a girl he's seen but doesn't know that well. They seem to hit it off and later that night when Owen is feeling adrift, he goes for a drive, stops outside her home and spends the evening in her room, talking, more talking and listening to her play her viola (she is a music student).
Their friendship hits off but something will happen that changes everything. So I'll leave it at that. It's not drastic or traumatic really but it is something that has a profound affect on Owen.
Simply told, very readable but also very emotional and quite excellent. Check it out. Have your teenage kids check it out. (5.0 stars)"
"In 2024, I've decided that I will focus on the works of Ursula K. Le Guin (amongst other reading challenges. The Beginning Place is my fourth read, one of Le Guin's standalone novels, originally published in 1980.
It tells the story of two disparate people, Hugh and Irena, both struggling and unsatisfied in the world, who meet each other in separate, strange place 'across the creek'. They will ultimately come together to help save the world of Tembreabrezi.
The story starts with Hugh. He is a frustrated young man, still living with his mother, who controls his life, and works at a local grocery store as a checker. On a particular day, instead of going home, he goes for a long walk and after crossing a creek, finds himself in a quiet, peaceful place. Returning home, he realizes that time has sort of stopped or slowed down tremendously while in his sanctuary. He begins to go there regularly, leaving for work early, telling his mother that he's out jogging, and enjoying the fresh water and just the peace of the spot.
Switch to Irena who it turns out, has been going to the same spot for a long time. In fact she has explored much further into Tembreabrezi and discovered the Mountain town and learned their language and enjoys the company of the locals. She is distressed when she discovers that Hugh has crossed over as she doesn't want to share.
Something dark is happening in Tembreabrezi though and ultimately, both will go on a further journey to try and save their friends. The last half of the story involves this journey and the final result. It's a neat little story, filled with emotion and strong feelings. It's not perfect mind you as some things are left unsaid. But it's got some neat characters and is a fascinating story, easy to read and leaves you satisfied with the resolution. It shows the depth and breadth of Le Guin's writing styles and her imagination. (4.0 stars)"
"The Field Guide by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black is the first book in the Spiderwick Chronicles written as a combined effort of the 2 authors. It is a young adult / middle grade fantasy in the same ilk as the Narnia books... or so it seems after one book, or maybe more like Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle or the Boggart books by Susan Cooper. Anyway, you can judge for yourselves if you try the book. I'd enjoyed some of Holly Black's work, having completed her graphic novel series, The Good Companions. So it was with interest that I decided to give this series a try.
I have to say I enjoyed this first book very much. The Grace family, mother Helen, oldest daughter, Mallory and twins Jared and Simon have been forced to move to the old Spiderwick estate in Maine. The father of the family has abandoned them and due to family issues (it seems that due to the separation, Jared has been acting up in school), Helen feels that a fresh start is necessary. The estate is empty as Aunt Lucinda seems to be in an asylum (more on that in later books possibly)
The Spiderwick estate is run down, problems with the roof and only 3 bedrooms are currently available. Jared hears something in the walls and the children investigate while Helen is getting groceries. They discover a secret room upstairs and seem to have disturbed what was living in the walls. Various incidents (I won't go into detail) happen in the next days, all blamed on Jared.
Jared finds a clue in the secret room and then finds a chest in the attic which has a book, The Field Guide, which tells about faeries of all sorts. This will lead to more adventures, I think... (future books!!!)
It's an interesting introduction, gets right to the point and right into the family, the story. A more than acceptable intro to the characters, their issues and their new home. And more importantly, it makes you want to continue to see what happens next. (4.0 stars)"
"Unfortunately, The Fall Of The Sparrow by Nigel Balchin was a Not Finish (NF) for me. It's too bad because I enjoyed a previous book The Small Back Room very much. Could I have finished it. Sure, it wasn't too long of a book, 300 pages, but I didn't particularly like any of the characters and really, the story didn't seem to be going anywhere. Too easy to put down.
Basically, the story is about one Jason Pellew and follows his life from childhood to adulthood. It starts with his being in court and sentenced for crime against friends and acquaintances. The story then moves into his childhood and where I gave up, he was in college. The story is told by a childhood friend, Payne, who runs into Jason throughout his life it seems.
Anyway... that's about all I can tell you. It's probably a better book than I give it credit for and ultimately I might have liked it more if I'd finished it. So, No rating (NR) and a DNF from me."
"I've enjoyed the Lore Olympus graphic novel series since I decided to take a chance on Volume 1 a couple of years ago. Lore Olympus: Volume Five by Rachel Smythe contains Chapters 76 - 104 of the series which basically focuses on the romance between the Goddess of Spring, Demeter and the Lord of the Underworld, Hades.
It's an ongoing story with the two moving forward and then backward in their potential relationship. In the last book, Persephone, who is interning in the Underworld, gets Hades to agree to keep their relationship on a strictly businesslike basis even though both really don't want that. This book commences with Hades breaking off his relationship with the nymph Minthe, who works as his secretary. He basically wants to be free should Persephone change her mind... and in this volume, there are indications of a relationship that will move closer.
Minthe with the help of Thanatos, another of Hades employees, and Thetis, a nymph who has had a relationship with Zeus (Yup, this series abound with relationships. They are the Greek gods after all) tries to find some dirt on Persephone so she can win Hades back. There is a back story that is very interesting about Persephone and is slowly being brought out.
Oh yes... and then there is Apollo who, in a previous volume, forced his attentions on Persephone, much to her shame. He still wants to have some sort of relationship with her, maybe just to ensure she says nothing about what he did. (Fair warning, there are some powerful themes in this series. In fact, Rachel Smythe does provide a content warning at the beginning of each book).
So... as the story progresses, Zeus gets involved at the instigation of Thetis, Hera also gets involved at the request of Artemis and Persephone disappears, leading to a search by Hades and Hecate and others. And there will be a very surprising ending, meaning I'll have to stew until mid 2024 for Volume 6!!!
The story can often be confusing as the gods have this habit of changing their appearance depending on their emotions. The artwork is colorful and quite powerful. There are many excellent characters; my favorites being Hecate, Artemis and Hermes. It's a neat look at the gods and always an entertaining read. (4.0 stars)"
Currently Reading
"In a career spanning half a century, Ursula K. Le Guin has produced a body of work that testifies to her abiding faith in the power and art of words. She is perhaps best known for imagining future intergalactic worlds in brilliant books that challenge our ideas of what is natural and inevitable in human relations—and that celebrate courage, endurance, risk-taking, and above all, freedom in the face of the psychological and social forces that lead to authoritarianism and fanaticism. It is less well known that she first developed these themes in the richly imagined historical fiction collected in this volume, which inaugurates the Library of America edition of her works.
The Complete Orsinia gathers for the first time the entire body of work set in the imaginary central European nation of Orsinia: the early novel Malafrena, begun in the 1950s but not published until 1979, the related stories originally published in Orsinian Tales (1976), and additional stories and songs. In a new introduction written for this volume, Le Guin describes the breakthrough that led to her first novel: “Most of what I read drew me to write about Europe; but I knew it was foolhardy to write fiction set in Europe if I’d never been there. At last it occurred to me that I might get away with it by writing about a part of Europe where nobody had been but me.” So Orsinia was established, a country, like its near neighbors Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania, with a long and vivid history of oppression, art, and revolution.
An epic meditation on the meaning of hope and freedom, love and duty, Malafrena takes place from 1825 to 1830, when Orsinia is a part of the Austrian empire. Itale Sorde, the idealistic heir to Val Malafrena, an estate in the rural western provinces, leaves home against his father’s wishes to work as a journalist in the cosmopolitan capital city of Krasnoy, where he plays an integral part in the revolutionary politics that are roiling Europe.
Thirteen additional stories trace the history of Orsinia from the twelfth century, when it first emerges as an independent kingdom, to 1989, when its repressive Stalinist government falls in an Orsinian Velvet Revolution. The poem “Folksong from the Montayna Province,” Le Guin’s first published work, joins two never before published songs in the Orsinian language.
The volume also features a newly researched chronology of Le Guin’s life and career, and detailed notes. The beautiful full-color endpaper map of Orsinia is drawn by Le Guin herself."
"Finding himself the victim of a botched kidnapping attempt, Val Gyrth suspects that he might be in a spot of trouble. Unexpected news to him – but not to the mysterious Mr. Campion, who reveals that the ancient Chalice entrusted to Val’s family is being targeted by a ruthless ring of thieves."
"A gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution--leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor , she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face."
"John Connolly thrilled readers with his bestselling novels, "Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow," and "The Killing Kind." Now he delivers spellbinding suspense as Charlie Parker races to unravel a brutal crime committed in the Deep South. After years of suffering unfathomable pain and guilt over the murders of his wife and daughter, private detective Charlie Parker has finally found some measure of peace. As he and his lover, Rachel, are awaiting the birth of their first child and settling into an old farmhouse in rural Maine, Parker has found the kind of solace often lost to those who have been touched by true evil.
But darkness soon descends when Parker gets a call from Elliot Norton, an old friend from his days as a detective with the NYPD. Now practicing law in Charleston, South Carolina, Elliot is defending a young black man accused of raping and killing his white girlfriend, the daughter of a powerful Southern millionaire. Reluctantly, Parker agrees to help Elliot and by doing so ventures into a living nightmare, a bloody dreamscape haunted by the specter of a hooded woman and a black car waiting for a passenger who never arrives. Beginning as an investigation into a young woman's death, it is a fast-moving descent into an abyss where forces conspire to destroy all that Parker holds dear."
"The setting is Thailand. A very important representative of the Queen is scheduled to visit Bangkok on a good-will tour. A threat has been made against his life, and somewhere amidst the golden spires awaits a deadly assassin.
The top-secret British espionage bureau feels ordinary security precautions are not sufficient, so they call in agent Quiller. He's a cynical loner, but the only man capable of tracking down the would-be killer. The tale is complex, set at a breathless pace!"
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